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| The Palmer Family: Katy, Maggie, Nolan, Livie, Liam and Jacob. Americans We Met Last Summer At Church in Newcastle. At Our Airbnb For Brunch. |
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| Video Call with Grandson Quinn and Daughter-In-Law Andrea. |
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| St. Mary's Lighthouse at Whitley Bay, England. Low Tide. |
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| Darrell Cooking Bacon for Our Brunch Guests Today. |
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| Setting Up Brunch Buffet for The Palmer Family. |
Saturday. 27. Darrell and I had our ‘normal’ sleep between 5-7 am, do our morning DDP exercise routine, and have an early first breakfast. We are preparing an 11am brunch meal for the US family we met at the Newcastle church last summer. Darrell makes a bunch of his pancakes and cooks British bacon. I prepare berries, nuts, and syrup on the side. The Palmers arrive and we eat a filling meal and have a sweet visit with them. Afterwards, Darrell and I spend the rest of the day taking a walk, working on the computer, and cooking soup for dinner. In the evening we often watch a house remodeling show on Discovery network. We have watched all the seasons for some of our favorite shows. We are currently watching Hometown Makeover with Ben and Erin from Mississippi and Dave and Jenny from Bentonville, Arkansas. We have watched all of their respective shows through the past years. We also watch shows in other cities including: Galveston, Indianapolis, Memphis, “Restored” in old California, and others. We both enjoy the process of home renovation and seeing the before and afters from the various shows. Watching some US tv also helps us to feel connected to our US home in a way.
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| Going Away Card. So Special! |
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| More Card. Oh My Heart! |
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| Bible Class Picture Taken By Katy. |
Sunday. 28. Darrell preached today. I taught the kids’ Bible class my final and fourth time. One of the 6 six children, Livie, age 7, drew me a cute picture. She also wrote a thank-you note and went to each person in the church and got a personal message from them to us and wrote those on the back of several pages. Wow! This was so unexpected and special to me!
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| Walk Along the Coast. Whitley Bay to Tynemouth. |
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| Springtime at Cullercoats. |
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| Cullercoats. |
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| Another Cullercoats Coffee Cappucino. |
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| A Selfie at Tynemouth. |
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| Lunch at Tynemouth Train Station. The Italian Restaurant. |
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| Tynemouth Abbey. |
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| Enjoying The Coast. The Ocean Waves. Between Whitley Bay and Tynemouth. |
Monday. 29. Today we walked south along the coast to Tynemouth. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant at the Tynemouth metro station. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the North Sea coast!
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| My Packing Pile. |
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| View of Newcastle Train Station from The Restaurant. |
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| Waiting at Newcastle for Our Delayed Train to London. |
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| On Our Train to London. We Got in About An Hour Late and Our Ticket Was Refunded! |
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| Darrell Resting in Our London Hotel Room. |
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| View From Our London Hotel Room of Heathrow Airport. |
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| Two Block Walk from the Hotel to This Portuguese Restaurant for Dinner. |
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| My Octopus Salad. It Was a Bit Chewy. Lol. The Dressing was Excellent with the Fresh Veggies! |
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| Darrell's Squid. Also a Bit Chewy. Oh Well. Otherwise The Char-grill was Tasty. |
Tuesday. 30. We are leaving Whitley Bay today. It’s one day earlier than we planned because tomorrow is a train strike that interferes with our original tickets to London. We eat breakfast at the Newcastle train station at a restaurant that we have eaten several meals at since our first visit last summer. Our train to London is running late, and we get to London just over an hour later than promised. The train company is required to give everyone a full refund on their tickets for this delay. Essentially it’s a free ride for us today. Wow. We catch a bus to our airport hotel. For dinner we walk a couple of blocks to a Portuguese restaurant and have a good dinner.
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| Dinner at a Pakistani Place. Very Tasty. |
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| At the Pakistan Restaurant Dining area. |
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| A Walk Through a Giant Field of Queen Anne's Lace Flowers! Stunning. |
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| This Horse and a Couple of Others Were Tethered and Feeding Here. |
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| Queen Anne's Lace and Yellow Buttercups in the Massive Field. |
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| An Interesting Tree at Osterley House. |
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| That Cool Tree At Osterley House. |
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| Stunning Flower Gardens at Osterley House. |
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| Bloom at Osterley Gardens. |
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| Garden House at Osterley House. |
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| Selfie at Osterley House. |
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| Darrell's Lunch at Osterley House Cafe. Jacket Potatoe with Salads and Tea with Milk. |
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| My Lunch at Osterley House Cafe. Bloomer Bread and Curry Lentil Soup. |
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| Selfie in a Hallway Inside Osterley House. |
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| Osterley House Mosaic Table Top Detail. |
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| Osterley House Mosaic Table Top. |
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| Osterley House Trim Detail. |
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| Osterley House Light Fixture. |
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| Osterley House Door Knob Detail. |
Wednesday. 31. We are staying at our London hotel for 2 nights. Turns out good and restful for us from the travel. We spent today taking a city bus to a mansion called Osterley House. We did a self-guided tour of the house and gardens. As each amazing old mansion here, this house has an unique story to go with it. We ate a quick lunch at the cafe on the property. We walked to and from the bus more than a mile each way. On our way back to an afternoon bus, we walked through a huge field of queen anne’s lace flowers! It went on for almost a mile! It was all in bloom and such a pleasure. There were a few tethered horses feeding within the space too. We ate at a Pakistani restaurant set up like a glorified food truck. The food was very delicious, but later in the evening I had such an upset belly of gas. Darrell never felt bad after the meal. I was able to sleep ok and mostly recover by morning.
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| At Lisbon, Portugal Airport Exit Door. |
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| Just Outside the Airport at Lisbon, Portugal. |
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| Outside Lisbon, Portugal Airport. Selfie with the Cobblestone. |
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| Walking to our Apartment. All Downhill From the Airport. |
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| Our Living Room at Lisbon, Portugal Apartment. Found on Booking.com. |
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| View from Our Lisbon Apartment. |
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| Wood Floor Detail in Our Lisbon Apartment. |
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| Moving Into Our Apartment Bedroom. |
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| A Common Looking Stairway in Lisbon, Portugal. |
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| Apartment Buildings with Blooming Trees. Lisbon, Portugal. |
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| At the Aquarium. Decorative Sidewalks everywhere. Lisbon, Portugal. |
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| Inside the Skylift Car. Lisbon, Portugal. |
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| Under a Beautiful Smelling and Giant Sized Jasmine Canopy. Walking in Shade Beside the Sea at Lisbon, Portugal. |
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| Outside of the Jasmine Canopy. Lisbon. |
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| Selfie in the Flower Canopy Shade. Lisbon. |
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| Flower Canopy Walkway. Lisbon. |
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| Common Shrub Flower. Lisbon. |
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| Cool Bridge. Lisbon. |
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| Cancer Tribute Mural. We Thought of Our Friends Who Have Passed with Cancer. |
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| Grandson Owen and Grandpa Playing Hats on Videocall. So Cute! |
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| Sunset Colors Viewed From Our Apartment. |
Thursday. 1. We took an early taxi to Heathrow Airport, a ten minute drive. It took almost a full 90 minutes to get through to our gate. We flew to Lisbon and arrived mid-morning, had a snack at the airport and then left the airport to see a downhill mile walk to our apartment stay. Our apartment is a beautiful one bedroom on the 3rd floor. We are able to drop our luggage off and take a small break before heading out to explore and have lunch. We walk toward the water, also mostly downhill. We have some lunch at a Thai restaurant! Lol! Then we walk to the parks at the waterfront and take a skylift ride. We walk through some very lovely gardens with an amazing jasmine canopy that is in bloom and smells heady! We have some ice cream and walk back to our apartment, getting some groceries too. We eat cereal for dinner and sleep well.
Friday. 2. We have a video call for a New Zealand housesit application. We ride the city bus to a metro station next to the airport to figure out how to get back there for when we fly out in a few days. We ride the metro into the old city of Lisbon. When we come out of the subway, we climb a gazillion stairs and escalators! Lol! On another day, I want to come back and do this climb again and count how many stories down it is. (Turns out we counted 17 stories out at the Biaxa-Chiado station! Wiki states it is 45 meters underground!)
Nomad Notes. I felt homesick once we arrived in Lisbon to our airbnb. It was mild and noticeable. Moving. Leaving a place we were comfortable in, and back to learning how to get around. Here the language difference creates an initial barrier. Google translator helps, but it is slow and outside of my normal. Once I rest and get something to eat I am better. Even after a couple of days with more familiarity to the language and the experience of buying things, I’m much better and more relaxed.
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